Akron Beacon Journal Appoints Female Publisher

The Akron Beacon Journal has appointed Andrea Mathewson a 29 year ABJ employee to the publisher position. She will serve as the FIRST female publisher ever in the paper's 168 years of operation. She graduated high school 5 minutes from me at Springfield High School and joined the ABJ right after graduation. Apparently she is REALLY a minority....

Few female publishers
Mathewson is joining a rare sorority, as publisher
of a newspaper with a circulation greater than 85,000 daily.
Of 137 such
newspapers in the United States, 25 had women publishers in 2006, up from 11 in
2000, according to ``Women in Media,'' a study by the Media Management Center at
Northwestern University in Illinois.

In 2006 she was named one of the Nation's Top Production Executives by a Editor and Publisher Magazine which is an trade journal for the industry. That's high honors to be credited publicly by your peers.

Mathewson says she will focus on gross revenue growth but plans to respect the ABJ's role in the community. She plans to provide solid leadership to the Beacon in her new position. I wish her luck in her new endeavor.